Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-05-13

entirely polite everywhere else. but eruff
and dictatorial andcontemptible when they
come into store to buy ANYTHING. There
are thousands of men and women who go
from store to store to price things, with.
out any idea of purchase. They are not
satisfied until every roll Of goods is
brought down and they have pointed out
all the real or imaginary defects. They
try ON all kinds of kid gloves, and stretch
styles of cloaks and walk to the mirror ~
see how it would look, and then they sail
out of the store, saying: Il will not take
it to-day;" which means: II don't want it
at MI, leaving the clerk, amid wreck of
ribbons and laces and cloths, to smooth
out $500 worth of goods-not one cent of
which did that man or woman buy or ex-
pect to buy. Now, I call that dis
honesty on the part of the customer. If a
boy runs into store and takes a roll OF
cloth off the counter and sneaks out into
nell: "Stop thief" When see you go
into store, not expecting to buy anything
but to price things, stealing the time OF
the clerk and stealing the tim eof his en-
ployer, 1 say, too: "stop theft" If [
were asked which class of persons most
need the grace of God amid their annoy
ances, would say: DRY goods clerks"
All the indignation of customers about the
high prices comes on the clerk. For in
stance:- A great war comes. The manu-
factories are closed. The people go off to
battle. The price Of goods runs up. A
customer comes into store. Goods have
| 10 {l,of1 A
dollar" "a dollar! Outrageous! "A dol.
lar!" Why, who is to blame for the fat
that it has got to be dollar? Does tie
indignation go out to the manufacturers IN
the banks of the Merrimac because they
have closed up? No. Does, the indigna-
| ton go out toward the employer, who is
out ct his couutry seat? No. 1t comes
on the clerk. He got up the war! He
levied the taxes! He puts up the renss! Of
course the clerk!
Then great trial comes to clerks in the
human nature. You talk about lies be-
hind the counter-there are just as many
lies before the counter Augustine speaks
of man who advertised that he would,
on certain occasion, tell the people what
was in their hearts. A great crowd assem-
bled and he stepped to the front and said:
II will tell you what is in your hearts: To
buy cheap and sell dear!" oh, people of
Brooklyn! lay not aside your urbanity when
you come into a store. Treat the clerks
like gentlemen and ladies-proving your
self to be a gentleman or lady. Remem-
Der that if the prices are hi h and your
purse is lean, that it is no fault of the
clerks. And if you have a son Or a
daughter amid those perplexities of COM
mercial life, and such one comes home
all worn out, be lenient and know that the
martyr at the stake no more certainly
needs the grace of God than our young
people amid the seven times heated ex-
ASPIRATIONS of clerks life.
Then there are all the trials which come
to clerks from the treatment Of incon-
siderate employers. There are protested
Christian men in this city who have no
more regard for their clerks than they
have for the scales on which the sugars
are weighed. A clerk is no more than SO
much store furniture. No consideration
for their rights or their interests. Not
one word of encouragement from sunrise
to sunset, nor from January to December.
But when anything goes wrong-a streak
| of dust on the counter or a box with the
cover of-thunder showers of scolding.
Men imperious, capricious, cranky toward
their clerks-their whole manner as much
as to say: Gall the interest have in you
is to see what can get out Of YOU"
Then there are all the trials of incompe-
the war broke out and all the merchan-
disc went up, and merchants were made
millionaires in six months by the simple
rise in the value of goods. Did the clerk
get the advantage of that rise? Sometimes,
not always. l saw estates gathered in
those times over which the curse of God
has hung ever since. The cry Of under
paid men and women in those stores
reached the Lord of Sabaoth, and the in
dignation Of God has been around those
establishments ever since; rumbling in the
glowing from the crimson upholstery,
laundering in the long roll of the ten pin
alley. Such men build up palaces of mer-
chandise heaven high, but after while a
disaster will come along and will put one
hand on this pillar and another hand on
that pillar, and throw itself forward until
down will come the whole structure, crush
ing the worshipers as grapes are mashed in
q wine press.
Then there are boys in establishments
who are ruined-in prosperous establish
ments-ruined by their lack of compensa-
ton. In how many prosperous stores it
has been for the last twenty years that boys
We're given Just enough money to learn
them how to steal! Some were seized
upon by the police. The vast majority of
instances were not known. The head of
the firm asked: "Where is George now?"
ooh, he isn't here any more"
A lad might better starve TO death on a
blasted heath than take one cent from his
employer. Woe be to that employer who
unnecessarily puts temptation in boy S
way. There have been great establish
ments in these cities, building marble
palaces, their owners dying worth millions
and millions and millions, who made vast
amount of their estate out of the blood and
muscle and nerve of half paid clerks. Such
men as-well. Twill not mention any name.
But mean men who have gathered up
vast estates at the expense of the people
who were ground under their heel. ooh, -
say such merchants, "if you don't like it
here, then go and get better place." AS
much as to say: "I've got you in my grip,
and I mean to hold you; you can't get any
other place. Oh, what contrast we see
between such men and those Christian
merchants of Brooklyn and New York who
to-day are sympathetic with their clerks
when they pay the salary, acting in this
way: "Ihis salary that give you is not all
my interest in you. You are an immortal
man; you are an immortal woman; am in
terested in your present and your everlast-
ing welfare; 1 want you to understand that,